13th March Multiple Birth Week starts

Multiple Birth Awareness Week is a national event held annually to celebrate the joy of parenting multiples, but also to educate communities and professionals about the challenges and joys of parenting twins, triplets and more. In the library I couldn't find any books about triplets or more, but I put together a display using quite a few books about twins that I found. There are three sets of twins at school at the moment, one of each of the possible combinations so it is good to show them, if not everyone that there are books written about twins. There seemed to be more novels than picture books, but the newest title, Take Two! is a lovely poetry book by J.Patrick Lewis and Jane Yolen and it certainly made a lovely centrepiece. It is illustrated by the Australian, but US-based illustrator Sophie Blackall. Look also for these picture books

• Hello Twins by Charlotte Voake

• The Holy Twins the historical story of Scholastica and Benedict, twins who both became saints and played a large part in Catholic education. It is written by Kathleen Norris and beautifully illustrated by Tomie dePaola.

• Meet the Barkers and other titles in the series about twins Morgan and Moffatt. These are written and illustrated by Tomie dePaola.

• Double Trouble by Deborah Niland and

• Twinnies by Eve Bunting

Then there are these novels:

• Twin Trouble and Connie and the Waterbabies by Jacqueline Wilson. These two come in one book under the title Twin Tales.

• Double Act another novel by Jacqueline Wilson also has twins, but they are older than Connie's siblings. They are ten and dealing with bigger family issues than Connie.

17th December Jacqueline Wilson (1945) Bel Mooney (1946)

Woke up to the news this morning, to hear that Australian author, Ruth Park had died. She is the author of The Muddle-Headed Wombat books and When the Wind Changed. She was 93, but it will still be hard for the Niland family at Christmas.

On a more celebratory note it is the birthday of two British authors who write contemporary realism that girls love. They relate to Jacqueline Wilson's characters and Bel Mooney's Kitty. The problem in my library with Jacqueline's books is that they read something like Lizzie Zipmouth or The Cat Mummy and then go and buy Cookie or Bad Girls because they aren't in the library. They just cannot wait to read more, even if it is not suitable to their age. I've had to deal with a couple of not so receptive mothers, but this shouldn't stop my under eights from reading the Jacqueline Wilson that she has written for them.

Bel Mooney also writes for a large age range but she has two series that are just perfect for my clientele. She writes about Kitty and her friends (there are more than ten titles) and another series about Bonnie, a small dog and her owner, Harry. This series now has at least 6 titles. Both series are popular.